Liberal groups to invest $100 million

By DONOVAN SLACK

05/08/2012 06:41 AM EDT

Major Democratic donors, including George Soros, are expecting to contribute some $100 million to outside groups this year - a fraction of what conservatives are expected to raise - but the liberal groups are targeting get-out-the-vote efforts instead of expensive air wars, the New York Times reports:

The departure from the conservatives’ approach, which helped Republicans wrest control of the House in 2010, partly reflects liberal donors’ objections to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which paved the way for super PACs and unbridled campaign spending. But in interviews, donors and strategists involved in the effort said they also did not believe they could match advertising spending by leading conservative groups like American Crossroads and Americans for Prosperity, and instead wanted to exploit what they see as the Democrats’ advantage in grass-roots organizing.

...In a move likely to draw in other major donors, Mr. Soros will contribute $1 million each to America Votes, a group that coordinates political activity for left-leaning environmental, abortion rights and civil rights groups, and American Bridge 21st Century, a super PAC that focuses on election-oriented research. The donations will be Mr. Soros’s first major contributions of the 2012 election cycle.

...PAC+, a super PAC founded by the San Francisco philanthropist Steve Phillips... expects to spend about $10 million on Latino voters in six states... Half of PAC+ spending will go to enrollment and half to advertising. “You can dump 10 or 20 million in TV ads in Ohio and try to reach the persuadable swing voters there, or you can up voter turnout among Latinos in Colorado and Arizona and win that way,” Mr. Phillips said. “It’s much cheaper.”